


Snapshots

by interlude



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Multi, Poetry, So many ships, so many characters - Freeform, so many headcanons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-11 00:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interlude/pseuds/interlude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A free verse poem for every single canon character in the Harry Potter series, from founders to NextGen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Harry James Potter

**Author's Note:**

> So, this project was originally posted on Fanfiction until it was forgotten for a while. Recently, my love for Harry Potter has been resparked and I started revisiting this project
> 
> I no longer know the password or email to log into my fanfiction account (and I prefer this site anyway) so I'll be transferring the old poems here, updating them a bit if they need it, and hopefully finishing the project!
> 
> a good majority of details are based on personal headcanons

**Harry James Potter:**

 

nice to meet you. aren't you Harry James Potter, son of James and Lily (Evans) Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived-and-Lived-and-became-the-Chosen-One, soon to be Savior of the Wizarding World? that's a might heavy name, boy; better wear it well.

(don't crack under the pressure, now, you hear?)


	2. Tom Marvolo Riddle, Jr.

**Tom Marvolo Riddle, Junior:**

 

that boy was a charmer, you see.

forked tongue slipping out all those  _littlewhitelies_  
smooth as silk and so seemingly  
harmless

perfection, he was, star pupil, remember?  
winning awards everyothertuesday,  
you know

( but oh, those _littlewhitelies_ that he told,  
that he said? they could sometimes be  
murder  
didn't you know ?

you see: one tiny bad word can cut down a man  
or the world while you're at it,  
ambitious young thing :

black hair and dark eyes, and those nice well pressed robes  
what a beautifu( _ly deadly_ ) thing that half-blood boy was )


	3. Petunia Dursley

**Petunia Dursley (nee Evans)**

Once or twice you thought you just might  
take it all back. ( _i'm_ _sorry_ ) what a shock.  
but no, you're not wrong - you're never, ever wrong,

so you don't,  
simple as that.

(no, you can't be wrong, for don't your remember? little red-headed Lily  
was perfect and pretty  
and magical, to boot,

running off to Hogwarts to charm  
mice into teacups, or other such  
 **nonsense.**

\- and you were just overlooked, not pretty, not special,  
certainly not magical like little witch Lily  
so you had to be perfect in your own plain-jane way  
just to keep up)

and perfect means you're always right,  
so you just can't be wrong  
not even with this.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm never sure what to think of Petunia. What an awful woman. And yet in some twisted way she still loves and mourns her sister


	4. Andromeda Tonks

**Andromeda Tonks (nee Black)**

****  
her parents taught blood blood blood and one day she opened  
he mouth  
  


( and she said " no, no, no ; i am so tired so  
very sick you have filled me with so much hate it has  
burned out my insides scorched my weak little lungs and now there  
are scars there are painful **black** burnsand so much damange that no  
one can every fix me up right and no not another sexond here in this house i met  
a muggle-born boy and his name is ted don't you see that i love him no matter his  
blood and i am leaving finally dear god i am running far from you and  
your perfect pure blood " )

and then she shut it up tight with a snap and left a letter on  
the kitchen table instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As far as I'm aware, Andromeda's separation from her family is never fully explained, only that she was disowned after marrying Ted. I think it's very likely she believed in concepts of blood purity for a while, perhaps into her first few years at Hogwarts before she met more people from different backgrounds
> 
> She also never seemed to me the kind of person to confront her family. I always pictured that she eloped with Ted and just hoped they might reach out to her afterwards. But of course they never did.


	5. Regulus Arcturus Black

**Regulus Arcturus Black**

**  
**you were always the family favorite

(but the secret is  
you were always so jealous of your older brother with his true-to-the-end  
friends and his foolish adventures and that easy way he stood up to your mother  
  - because maybe you believed what she taught but sometimes you wanted to  
SCREAM when she spoke ; oh that woman hardly knew love and you hated that -

and you watched with green tinted vision: sirius's head was always held high, touching clouds you felt you could  
never reach, voice so loud and clear it nearly toppled that angry woman over :

 **gryffindor** bravery,  
you never had any of that).

 

mother liked your silence ; father liked your listen and obey mentality  
(the dark lord like it too, and there was a time when  
you treasured that)

but you, boy, head down and voice soft, weren't meant to be you loud and proud brother,  
with style all red and gold

you don't need attention though, thanks ; this is a task best done in secret  
and you can play the hero just as easily in silence,

 

unknown,  
unnoticed

that's  _ **slytherin**_ bravery for you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish we could have seen more of Regulus.
> 
> He reminds me a lot of Draco (and what I believe Andromeda was like in her youth) - someone who believes everything they're taught and grow up with until it just sort of caves in on them but by then they're in too far to get out unscathed.
> 
> Regulus, though, the unsung hero. A silent, Slytherin hero (far braver than Snape). I wish Sirius could have known.


	6. Narcissa Malfoy

**Narcissa Malfoy (nee Black):**

 

She had stonecold eyes and whitegold hair.

"  _that little girl's going to grow up well_ "  
they all said - whispered it in long hallways late at night  
  


but it echoed around corners and down into her ears  
so she looked in the mirror and thought

"  _i'm pretty_ "

 

that little blonde girl grew up in a big old black house that taught lessons of  _betterblood  
_ and that's not that far a stretch from  _betterlooks_ so soon  
she thought herself 

queen of the world

 

married (too young) she did :  
a rich, pureblooded gentleman who her mother called

"  _proper_ "

and she had a nice, pale, pureblooded boy

 

people in the streets whispered  
"  _beautiful family_ " as they walked by ;  
she just smiled, sharp pretty teeth, and thought:

"  _oh yes, i know_. "

 

(but here is the secret, that one little catch

thinking like that pulls you up oh so high  
so there's just enough room to come  
crashing  
down.

 _betterlooks_ means the same as  _betterblood  
_ these days, which is to say

 **NOTHING** )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tempted to write another about Narcissa to focus on the motherly side of her, because it's so important to the series
> 
> but for this one I wanted to focus on her name, which comes from the myth of Narcissus who was so beautiful and vain he fell in love in his own reflection and either withered away staring at it and died or drowned, depending on the version you read


	7. Dean Thomas

**Dean Thomas:**

 

he never thought he'd fight in a war, no  
never thought he'd be on the run threelongweeks  
either.  
no not a good boy like him, nice, polite, and all  
those good grades, my what happened?

**magic**

hogwarts, redgoldbanners, (and Seamus).  
right, all that rot; well, maybe six years ago  
he should've just thrown that letter away  
(remember how that owl nearly made your parents faint?  
too bad dad didn't give a heads up on that)

huh, what a funny thought and he doesn't  
much like it;  
give him the chance, he thinks  
(maybe time turner or time machine)  
to go back to his eleventh birthday; he knows he'd  
do it all the same,

yes,  **fugitive** , and all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little sad I couldn't find a place to squeeze in something about him being an artist, because that's just cool


	8. Nagini

**Nagini:**

 

today cold  
outside : :

(dead skin sure cold ; :  
humanwoman  
no help)

littlescarboy got bigger

since

zoo.  
so small  
then, eat one

bit whole, yesssss? but take

at least

two, now.

boy  
vanished glass  
away once, yessss? oh, but no  
feed ; so

hungry & massster gives  
big, nice bodiesss

to feast

on,  
to feast.

(still warm - tasty  
is warm :  
not like  
cold humanwoman body)

but littlescarboy  
warm too, yesss? oh, make

such

nice

snack.

(littlefrecklegirl too)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that Nagini and the snake at the zoo are completely different snakes (different breeds, even) but when I originally wrote this it was right after seeing that myth floating around on the internet and it was interesting enough that I wanted to work with it. Anyway, I realize it's not canon but I liked how this poem turned out, so just work with it, yeah? Pretend!
> 
> Also, by ALL characters, I meant even the important animals like the Giant Squid and Buckbeak and so on! It's fun to try and get into an animal's head!


	9. Remus John Lupin

**Remus John Lupin ; "Moony" :**

 

 

**i.**

that man has  
wrinkles 'round his eyes & in the  
corners of his mouth where smiles once  
stretched the skin.

mousy brown hair is graying  
day by day by day & he's looking  
rather tattered, battered - like those  
old robes wrapped 'round his shoulders, all fraying  
threads & square patches on elbows.

.

.

**ii.**

there's alcohol laced on his tongue :  
dancing on his breath in familiar leaps and  
pirouettes again, though he swears his brokenrecord  
promise that he'll stop, this time for sure (f _or whatever_  
 _would dear lily say?_ ) but he can't ; he's sort of frac-  
tured up his legs, a little bro-  
ken down his spine, worn down to his bones and  
the tips of his toes. that man is puttering, sputtering on  
through life and so in need of some magical, miracle elixer  
to give him a little push : to jumpstart him, kick him on  
through the day  
and whiskey works wonders.

( numbs the mind a little, it does,  
helps him sleep ; blurs his vision well, so  
he goes all squinty eyed, with the world  
twirling, whirling and he doesn't have the  
time to notice all those wanted posters here, there,  
everywhere - _oh, look, padfoot, you're famous like_  
 _you always wanted_ \- what with the world  
spinning wildly 'round him as it is )

.

.

**iii.**

his favorite place is a cemetery :  
grave reading out 'james & lily' in the  
cracking, spider-webbed granite; and down he sits on  
the ground ; dirt and mud and snow and grass dirty  
his robes, leave little stains to remind him he was  
there, once upon a time; whispering soft and fragile, he speaks  
to the stone and pretends that it listens (sometimes hears advice and  
well-wishes from an old long-gone friend) and sometimes says

"  _sorry_ "

in a cracking, spider-webbed voice  
because doing nothing is as much of a sin  
as anything and he's as damned as they come.

.

.

**iv.**

the stone corridors play out little  
memories as he walks, footsteps  
tap-tapping in echoes that sound like  
laughter if you listen close enough (shh,  
pretend it doesn't sound like somone you used to love)  
his ears have gone clouded, deaf,  
while he stares at a map and a name dancing  
'round on the parchment ; his stomach twists  
itself in knots, circles, ovals too ( _and oh, sirius,_

 _i'm so sorry i doubted you_  )

because that man should be  **dead** but there he  
is, clear as day : peter pettigrew.

 

(wolves are predators, everyone knows that ;  
and now that broken man has a purpose to piece  
himself back together again, whole and good as new :  
he's hunting down a rat.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my god, I love Remus Lupin in all his tragic, broken, depressed, alcoholic glory
> 
> I could go on forever about what I imagine happened to him after James and Lily were killed and Sirius went to Azkaban. I imagine he became an alcoholic shortly after and pretty much remained unemployed (though perhaps he grabbed a job or two in the muggle world)
> 
> and I could have added more about him and Sirius in there too, but I wasn't sure where to fit it in. Perhaps in Sirius's poem?


	10. Peter Pettigrew

**Peter Pettigrew; "Wormtail" ; "Scabbers" :**

you sure are a **RAT**  
the way you scurry your way out of trouble .  
but trouble has an awful habit of coming back  
to haunt you , choking the life out of you with a  
tight hold on your  
  


neck.


	11. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

**Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore:**

 

 

It wasn't that he hated that house : no, he didn't. It  
was just very small : he and his big brilliant mind didn't  
fit. But he tried, please, he tried (lost lonely brother  
and sweet, insane sister to take care of, remember  
and really he loved them - deep down he loved them,  
just sometimes liked books so very much more and  
he was supposed to run off and travel the world,  
see all the sights and the wonders of life, and he  
could taste it right there on his tongue, it was so  
close but he was trapped in a house much too  
stuffy and small ; the world, though, just think -  
the world was almost his for the taking and just  
big enough for stretching his mind but don't worry,  
he's fine - really, was fine ; he stayed in that house  
with his siblings and books and cast out all dreams of  
the world.

until along came a boy

with long hair of gold

and

the

wonders of the world

in his

eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so conflicted/almost indifferent about Dumbledore at this point. Like I just don't care about him but I also hate him sometimes and I also love some of the things he says and I just don't think I'll ever make up my mind about him. Certainly flawed though


End file.
